Murder Charges Follow Shoot-out, Chase, Search

April 19, 1986|By David Uhler, Staff Writer

POMPANO BEACH — When detectives caught a man who pumped a bullet into their car on Interstate 95 early Friday morning, they thought they had one of the men who had murdered a suspected drug dealer a few hours earlier.

They were wrong.

The murderers, who police said are friends of the man who shot at the detectives, were busy packing their bags and loading their truck for a fast trip out of town.

Robert Rosco Costantino, 43, of Margate, may have thought that the undercover officers were friends of the dead man when he shot at them, police said.

``We bring him in to the station, clean him up and show him to our witness, and then the witness says, `That`s not him,` `` Detective Cary Kultau said.

After learning that Costantino was not involved in the murder, police went to an apartment complex where they thought the suspects lived and saw them leaving in their Chevrolet El Camino.

The driver, Steven Long, is a Vietnam veteran who uses a wheelchair. He sped away in the El Camino, which has special throttle and brake controls mounted on the steering wheel.

Long, 29, eventually missed a turn and rammed a utility pole.

He was unable to run, but his passenger, Richard Eric Watson, slipped out of the vehicle and managed to crawl into a canal about 100 yards away, police said.

Under cover of darkness, Watson, 19, was able to avoid detection despite an intensive search by officers and K-9 units from the Pompano Beach Police Department and the Broward Sheriff`s Office.

He was caught about five hours later, hiding under a blanket in a cardboard box in an apartment complex`s laundry room, police said.

Watson and Long, who live together at the Carriage House Apartments in an unincorporated area north of Pompano Beach, were charged with first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery.

Long was also charged with possession of a firearm during commission of a felony.

A gun that police think was the murder weapon was later found buried behind a building in the apartment complex.

Costantino, of the 6100 block of Northwest 18th Street, was charged with two counts of attempted murder and single counts of discharging a firearm at an occupied vehicle, resisting arrest with violence and possession of a firearm during commission of a felony.

Police were called about 1 a.m. after a gunfight in an apartment in the 300 block of Southwest Second Court.

Jean Claude Seide, 40, had been shot three times. One of the bullets pierced his heart.

Long and Watson, who had purchased drugs from Seide before, intended to rob him when they slipped into Seide`s apartment just after midnight, police said.

Seide lived with three other Haitian men. Three men were sleeping inside the living room, another in an adjoining bedroom.

Long was in his wheelchair and carrying a Beretta 9-mm semi-automatic pistol, police reported. One of the sleeping men woke up, and the shooting started. Police said they were unsure who fired first.

``One of the Haitians reached under his bed and rolled out with a handgun,`` Kultau said.

Long fired at least seven times, striking Seide twice in the chest and once in the left leg, police said.

The men fled in Long`s El Camino, but witnesses got a description of it before calling police.

A narcotics detective recalled seeing the El Camino and a man in a wheelchair at the Carriage House Apartments off Sample Road and I-95, which is about four miles north of where the slaying took place. Two officers went there in an unmarked car with dark-tinted windows and found the El Camino.

Long and Watson had been joined by Costantino, and they probably saw the officers` car go by, police said.

``The killers apparently filled him (Costantino) in and told him that they just dusted a Haitian,`` Kultau said. ``Then they saw a car go by and maybe they thought it was the other Haitians trying to get revenge.``

Officers were headed back to the police station for further instructions when they saw a Pontiac Fiero with its headlights off follow them out of the apartment complex`s parking lot.

On I-95, Costantino pulled the Fiero next to the unmarked car and fired several times, hitting the police vehicle once in the passenger`s side quarter panel, police said. The officers returned fire and hit the Fiero once in the driver`s side door.

Costantino zipped off the interstate at the Atlantic Boulevard exit and headed into Collier City, where he was forced to jump out at a dead-end road in the 2300 block of Northwest Seventh Street, police said. As he ran, Costantino pulled several pieces of jewelry from his pockets and flung them to the ground before he was caught, police said.